I F'ed up, what did I do wrong.....

Hello All,

So a couple of weeks ago I ended up setting up a QT tank for all my fish to battle ich, the good news is everyone is doing great and no more signs of ich.

Now for where I F'ed up :help (2):

I figured while I had all the fish out of the tank I should go ahead and fix some things so when they are ready to be put back in the DT it will be kickass. One thing I did was remove all of the crushed coral and replace it with live sand and instead of 1/3 live and 2/3 base rock just go 100% live rock. Took me most of the weekend to do but by Sunday night I finished everything.

Now keep in mind all I have in this tank is a fire shrimp, peppermint shrimp, some snails, hermit crabs, mushroom and a kenya tree coral which I put in a bucket while I did all the work.

So last night I worked late so I didn't test the water but noticed that my kenya tree coral looked pretty sad so as soon as I came home from work today I tested the water and the results were bad across the board. Ammonia was a good 4.0, nitrate was a solid 80, nitrite was 5.0, and pH was 7.8... WHAT A MESS

I did a 20% water change, added some Prime, DrTim's Aquatics Eco-Balance and pH buffer and I'll retest tomorrow

My question is what would cause my water from perfect conditions on Friday night to scary conditions tonight? Did removing the crushed coral cause this mess? Should I do a dose of DrTim's One and Only?

Let me know your thoughts and if there is anything else I can do.

Thanks!

All your bacteria was on your rock you pulled out. You also disturbed the Cc, so everything that was under it was now released. Was the "live rock" freshly delivered, as in out of the water as it was flown to the us, or was it in a tank cured? If it was out of water, there's probably a lot of die off on the rock.


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Half of the live rock was cured and the other half was straight from the box but I tried to clean it with a soft brush to take off the dead matter

Do you think I should do another dose of DrTim's One and Only?

I've never used that stuff, but the rock from the box probably had a lot of dead bacteria in it, which is why you have ammonia. The ammonia is being converted to nitrite, then to nitrates by your live rock. Congrats, your in a cycle. Have you treated your qt tank with copper yet? If not I'd suggest moving the contents of your DT into your QT.


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I have treated with copper already fingers crossed something lives

Yea to much change. I'd say the crushed coral removal was what did it. Dr. Toms works wonders though and it's good your fish don't have to be back ASAP.

Base rock is live rock but usually just unattractive pieces. The crushed coral and base rock removal with uncured live rock was the culprit. Keep at the water changes and I like dr Tim's and think it'll help speed up the process.

There might be some die off from the live rocks. Try using Dr. Tim's One and Only to speed up the bacteria if you are in a rush, if not just let it cycle as usual with out Dr. Tim's

or ATM colony, that stuff is legit... but sounds like your introduced a bunch of stuff thats dead or dieing into your tank

yeah that boxed live rock is what i think did it, Depending on how you removed your old CC if you syphoned it out i don't think that would be it, if you removed it with cup or something along those lines where it got mixed, then yes the sand also. Basically your in a cycle now so just do a couple water changes and wait for everything to drop back down, When you add your live stock back in be sure to not add them all at ones.

Yea way too much change at once. Removing the cc would have been enough to mess things up b
It that live rock was probably half dead by the time you got it. Perfect for cycling a tank but not perfect in this case. Just let it cycle.

Removing the crush coral was a good move but I bet by doing that kicked up some nasty.

If you have time today go and find some Seachem Stability. Get a couple of 250ml bottles (under$16 for both) and use it as directed for the next week or two or until you run out. Trust me test your tank three days from after using it and you will be amazed..

Well the good news is after some DrTim's One and Only my water tests are looking better. The bad news is I lost half of my CUC and now it looks like part of my mushroom rock is melting. Do I just let it be and see if any part of it lives or do I just remove it?

You have restarted your nitrogen cycle. It will take some time, however water changes will dilute most if your bad water....which is a good thing. Good luck with the cycle. My suggestion is to allow the cycle to finish and do not add any more chemicals to the tank. Stability will only take time....

Larry